meaning of space leak

1. space leak A data structure which grows bigger, or lives longer, than might be expected. Such unexpected memory use can cause a program to require more garbage collections or to run out of heap. Space leaks in functional programs usually result from excessive laziness. For example, the Haskell function sum [] = 0 sum x:xs = x + sum xs when applied to a list will build a chain of closures for the additions and only when it reaches the end of the list will it perform the additions and free the storage. Another example is the function mean l = sum l / length l The sum function forces the entire list l to be evaluated and built in the heap. None of it can be garbage collected until the length function has consumed it. SPACEWAR A space-combat simulation game for the PDP-1 written in 1960-61 by Steve Russell, an employee at MIT. SPACEWAR was inspired by E. E. "Doc" Smiths "Lensman" books, in which two spaceships duel around a central sun, shooting torpedoes at each other and jumping through hyperspace. MIT were wondering what to do with a new vector video display so Steve wrote the worlds first video game. Steve now lives in California and still writes software for HC12 emulators. SPACEWAR aficionados formed the core of the early hacker culture at MIT. Nine years later, a descendant of the game motivated Ken Thompson to build, in his spare time on a scavenged PDP-7, the operating system that became Unix. Less than nine years after that, SPACEWAR was commercialised as one of the first video games; descendants are still feeping in video arcades everywhere. ["SPACEWAR" or "Space Travel"?] [Jargon File]

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